Nigeria’s pension fund assets rise by N238bn in November, says PenCom

By Zainab Iwayemi

Nigeria’s total pension fund assets climbed to N12.29 trillion as at the end of November, 2020, showing an increase of 1.97 percent or N238 billion from N12.05 trillion recorded in October 2020, data from the National Pension Commission (PenCom) accessed by Business A.M. shows.

A breakdown analysis of the data, as found on the regulatory body’s website, revealed that the total number of Retirement Savings Account (RSA) fund increased from N12.05 trillion reported in the preceding month to N12.29 trillion as of November 2020.

The data contains various assets investments under the pension fund scheme, including the sum of N8.1 trillion, representing 66.2 percent, invested into federal government’s securities, of which the sum of N7.3 trillion, accounting for 60.03 percent, went into FGN bonds with treasury bills, agency (NMRC and FMBN) bonds, getting N642 billion and N6 billion, as well as Sukuk and green bonds recording N100 billion and N11.81 billion investments respectively. State government securities declined to N150.58 billion, accounting for just 1.22 percent of the total pension fund assets.

The growing demand for mutual funds investment by local investors who seek higher returns on their investment; efforts by employers to enroll their employees in various pension fund asset management firms, and the propositions of the pension industry regulators to the open RSA transfer window, which allows contributors to switch pension fund administrators, coupled with the normalcy of economic activities strengthened investors’ confidence in the industry, causing the net asset value to spike.

The corporate debts securities, which are combinations of corporate bonds, corporate green bonds and corporate infrastructure bonds, contributed N731.5 billion, representing 5.95 percent of the total assets for the period under review.

The PenCom document also showed that the local money market and foreign money market securities accounted for N1.79 trillion and N14.5 billion or 14.6 percent and 1.18 percent of the total pension fund assets, respectively, for the period under review.

In the like manner, real estate properties contributed about N158.6 billion into the fund, while private equity fund and cash & other assets, recorded N31.7 billion and N190 billion each.

The total Retirement Savings Account Fund registrations stood at 9,198,475 at the end of November 2020.